You Should Stay
by Animegirl1129
Summary: In which Sarah breaks up with Jack and Dave is there to make sure he doesn't leave because of it.


You Should Stay

_**Written in response to cottoncandy_bingo prompt: private moment. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome. Might be kind of ooc, haven't seen the movie in a while.**_

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"I met someone new."

Four such basic words, and yet they have so much meaning. It's a good thing that Jack Kelly is the master of ignoring any effects of the meaning they might have. He kicks at nothing on the Jacob's roof and refuses to look Sarah in the eyes while she does this. "Yeah?"

She nods, a soft smile on her face that tells Jack all he needs to know when he does finally dare to look up. "He's a real nice boy. Michael, is his name. He's a little older, but he's a lawyer. He's smart and thinks I am, too." A long, awkward pause and then, "I'm really sorry, Jack."

"'s nothing," he replies, keeps his voice cool and level even though it this conversation just makes him want to run again when he hasn't felt like running in a long time.

How could he compete with that? Sure, he thinks Sarah is smart and pretty, and he's a little older, too, but he's not smart - not really, not smart enough to be a lawyer - and he doesn't make near any money at all, running around on the streets with the newsies. He's nothing compared to this new guy.

There's a tense hand on his equally tense shoulder. It squeezes lightly, but he shrugs it off. He wants to leave, but his feet won't move and he doesn't want Sarah to see him all sad and broken (because, honestly, he kind of is) and he's beyond relieved when she mumbles out some excuse and quickly leaves via the fire escape.

And, just like that, Jack is alone. Again.

He loses it, then. He doesn't cry, because Jack Kelly does not cry, but he kicks over a basket full of something that someone had left by the laundry lines. Then, pacing like a caged animal, he turns abruptly and slams a fist into the cement at the edge of the roof, cursing colorfully when the pain hits and his knuckles come up bloody. He drags his other hand through his hair, pulling slightly because physical pain is a nice break from the feeling in his chest and then he's sliding down the low-wall and pulling his knees up and this was the last thing he expected when he came over for dinner tonight, like he always does on the weekends. At least no one is around to witness this, though. He sighs and drops his head into his hands and breathes out a distressed, "what now?"

"Uh, maybe you tell me what happened?"

Or maybe someone has witnessed his private breakdown.

There's a hand on his shoulder again, this one a warm, more solid weight, as Dave moves off the fire escape, hopping over the edge of the roof to sit beside him, so close that they're pressed together from shoulder to hip. And then Dave's blue eyes are focused on him, looking for clues as to what is going on because he's smart, too.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothin', Davey," he says, even though it's hopeless to lie to him. It never works. He can always tell.

The look his best friend levels him with tells him as much, and David shakes his head and says, "Is... is this about Sarah?"

And Dave never has liked the whole Jack and Sarah thing, Jack knows that. He gets that Dave doesn't want just anyone dating his sister and Jack is pretty sure he doesn't deserve to be on the list of people acceptable for the position - which has been made clear given the differences between himself and this new guy. He wonders what David thinks of Michael.

"We're not together anymore."

He looks up abruptly, seemingly as floored by the news as Jack was. "What? Why?"

"His name's Michael, apparently."

"Oh."

Jack nods. "Yeah."

"He's been coming around a lot. I didn't know she liked him like that, though." A frown and then, "I'm sorry, Jack." Dave reaches over to squeeze his arm lightly, a move that he doesn't pull away from, not like he did earlier.

"I guess I should get goin'," Jack says, staring down at his feet. After all, he doesn't have an excuse to stay anymore, not really. "Sarah won't want me hangin' around now." He moves to get up and he's only just pushed himself back to his feet when Dave, who still has hold of his arm, pulls him back.

"No," he says. "You should stay."

Jack stumbles his way back down to the ground and lands ungracefully beside the younger boy. "But, I..."

"Just because she doesn't want you around doesn't mean that I don't," Dave argues, but then pauses because realization hits and maybe... "Unless you don't... don't want to be around now. That is. If... If Sarah was the only reason."

"No!" Jack is quick to say because that could not be further from the truth. He's not looking forward to seeing Michael around (because he's sure he'll be around), but that's not the part he's afraid of. The part he's afraid of (and Jack Kelly does not admit to fear easily) is being alone again. He's spent so much time with the Jacobs' family since he started dating Sarah that he's sure being away from them will hurt. And he hasn't had to deal with a lot of that kind of hurt because he doesn't usually let himself get close enough to risk it. He'd had a plan before. Before Dave and the Newsies strike and beating the World, before Sarah. He's had the dream of Santa Fe to keep him going for as long as he can remember, but that's pretty much gone now. And all he has now is... nothing. Nothing. And if he loses this, too - Dave, mostly, the last link he has to this weird kind of family thing he has - then he doesn't know what he'll do. "I want to stay. But, I don't know if I have an excuse to anymore."

Dave looks at him curiously. "An excuse?"

The echo concerns him. Dave could have taken that the wrong way - that Sarah was an excuse to be around more. And, well, she kind of was. She was an additional tie to the family, on top of the friendship with David and Les and the partnership and the newsies. But that doesn't mean he didn't like her, because he did. He swears he did. Just not... not like he probably should have. "Dave-"

"You don't need an excuse to be here, Jack."

"I don't?"

"You're like family by now," David defends. "Maybe... maybe not to Sarah," and Jack is kind of awed that he sounds mad at her (and he thinks that maybe he was wrong about why David didn't seem to like him dating Sarah), "but to the rest of us. To me."

Jack honestly doesn't know what to say to that. Family's something he didn't think he wanted before. Before when it was just him running around leading the newsies and trying to avoid jail and planning his escape at every second of every day. But, even if Dave claims he has it now, has them, he's not sure that's what he wants either because he can see all the things he liked in Sarah (eyes, smile, personality) in Dave only they're all better there. And maybe Dave was a bigger part of his excuse - another reason to be around Dave more now that he's mostly back at school and not working as much - than he'd thought and he doesn't know what to do with that thought, either.

"Jack?"

He makes some sort of 'hmm' noise in acknowledgement, lost in his own thoughts.

The hand that hasn't moved from his arm squeezes a little, trying to get his attention and he finally does turn, only to find Dave closer than he expected and oh.

There were moments. Moments during the strike - when Dave risked everything and showed up to bust him out of the Refuge and when they were talking - shouting - in the alley afterward, when Jack saved him from the Delancey brothers and their brass knuckles and when they beat the World, when they _won_. Moments that he tried to ignore, tried to redirect onto Sarah as much as he could but he sees the same confusion that he feels reflected back in Dave's eyes and that... that might be a good thing.

And suddenly everything is too hot and too close and too much, but David's hand slides up his arm to his shoulder and then around to his neck and it seems like it takes forever for Jack to pull David in closer, but finally there's a kiss. There's a kiss and it's so much better than kissing Sarah. David is all chapped lips and swift tongue (perfect for the walking mouth) where Sarah was all too soft and smooth and closed off.

"Davey," he grumbles out, mouth still pressed against the other boy's.

And David grins against his mouth and the kissing is bound to start up again, but a sharp call from below, on the fire escape is enough to draw them apart.

"David! Is Jack staying for dinner?"

A quick kiss, this one barely a peck as Dave shifts and looks down over the wall. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, he's not going anywhere."


End file.
